Opinion

A plea for the existence of good governance -- Community editorial board

PMO chief of staff Katie Telford, right, and adviser Gerald Butts seen in this photo from a 2015 press conference. The duo are under fire for their moving expenses claimed after Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister.

A year into his mandate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has fumbled into his first scandal.

His principal secretary Gerald Butts and chief of staff Katie Telford are under fire for their relocation expenses to Ottawa.

The staffers have now stated they will return some of the excessive expense claims involved with their move. They apologized and stated they were only following the rules. The argument could be made this return of funds and apology only happened because of the Globe and Mail’s report earlier in the week.

The Liberal government of Trudeau was elected with the promise of doing things different, “real change” as it was coined. The previous government of Stephen Harper was elected with the promise of accountability and doing things different.

Each new government promises not to do things the way its predecessors have, yet falls into the same patterns as before.

Ask 10 people how they want their government to act and you will get 10 different answers with the same overall theme, good governance. We just want our government to be well managed. It’s a great ideal that no government can achieve.

Maybe our ideal is just flawed to begin with?

Look back at Canadian history. Our system of government in Canada was not based on an ideal system inherited from Great Britain. From the colonial times of Upper Canada, governance was about who you knew.

The Family Compact was the old boys’ club of the colony. Residents kept their heads down, hoping to be left alone. As change happened, graft and mismanagement remained. Once colonial citizens were allowed to vote, this did not stop.

Voting men took to the local tavern or hall to vote in public. They were plied with food and strong drink by the candidates to earn their vote.

In the run up to confederation in 1866, the New Brunswick legislature voted against confederation. Later in the year, that colony’s government fell and new elections were called. It was the money from Sir John A. Macdonald and his supporters that won the pro-confederation side, and Canada was born a year later.

That pattern has continued throughout Canada’s history of governance, despite our constitutional line of peace, order and good governance.

We received the secret ballot, then decades later universal suffrage, but government practices remained. Awarding appointments and contracts to friends and supporters of the government continued.

The exposure of this pattern in the press from time to time has brought down governments by resignation or at the next general election. It has changed policy. Yet this pattern, most of the time unseen, continues.

We call actions such as the expense claims with senators Mike Duffy and Mac Harb a scandal and are outraged. Just as we are with the Prime Minister’s Office staffers Butts and Telford.

We should not be shocked anymore at these bad examples of governance.

The Telfords and Butts, the Duffys and Harbs. It is part of our country’s history and DNA.

Issues are found, the rules change and the system gets better. Should we call that good governance? Maybe.

It is not good when these issues happen – we have to pay for them – but a fix to prevent the issue from happening again usually comes along to address our outrage until there is another issue or scandal in another place.

In the end, we have the imperfect system we have, and it is fixed slowly as the issues come to light. The evolution of our system is not good governance per say, but the reaction to people wanting good governance.

The fact that we still want to be governed well is a sign that we hope for better from our elected leaders. Maybe that next government will finally be the one to do it.